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M2 MBA with Anker 20w GaN Power Adapter?

beansbaxter

beansbaxter

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 2, 2015
85
24
Seattle
Searching the forums, I saw some talk about using the Apple's 20w USB-C power adapter for the MBA, but haven't seen anything about third party 20w GaN chargers.

I have a 2022 MBA M2 8-Core that came with the Apple 30w USB-C power adapter.

And I have an Anker PowerPort III Nano USB-C power adapter. This is a 20w GaN charger, and is significantly smaller than the Apple 20w adapter.

Would it be ok to use this Anker GaN charger with the MBA?
 
beansbaxter said:
Searching the forums, I saw some talk about using the Apple's 20w USB-C power adapter for the MBA, but haven't seen anything about third party 20w GaN chargers.

I have a 2022 MBA M2 8-Core that came with the Apple 30w USB-C power adapter.

And I have an Anker PowerPort III Nano USB-C power adapter. This is a 20w GaN charger, and is significantly smaller than the Apple 20w adapter.

Would it be ok to use this Anker GaN charger with the MBA?
Click to expand...
If it is a Power Delivery (PD) USB-C charger you can just try it. It’ll either work or not but it won’t harm your MBA. I wouldn’t try it if it isn’t USB-C PD.
 
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This is the Anker 20w GaN charger I have:

www.anker.com

Anker 511 Charger (Nano)

Fast Charging for iPhone: Anker Nano’s 20W output is designed to charge the iPhone 13 series up to 3× faster than with an original 5W charger. Charge in Style: Choose from Lavender Grey, Mint Green, Black, and White finishes to find the perfect style partner for your phone. Space-Saving Design...
www.anker.com
 
I think you can safely use it. I have iPad Air original charger (12w), which I plug to MacBook Air few times when I have free time (it needs few hours to full charge) with no harm (based on battery health) - even sometimes it increased battery health slightly.
 
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Aside from not being able to provide sustained power for long term heavy use (by that I mean 40-90% chip usage over 2+ hours), I don’t see any serious issue. PD is a must but that charger should have that regardless.
 
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Yeah as long as it's USB-C PD it should work just like the Apple 20W adapter. Meaning it will charge just fine, even during sustained heavy load since such a situation will throttle the SoC to about 8-10W power draw anyway.
 
I wasn't sure what "PD" was, but I just learned "fast charging" tech is PD... so I should be ok.

Thank you everyone.
 
beansbaxter said:
I wasn't sure what "PD" was, but I just learned "fast charging" tech is PD... so I should be ok.

Thank you everyone.
Click to expand...
USB-PD means ”Power Delivery” over USB. It’s a new specification designed to allow one port (USB-C) to both transfer data and charge, rather than only doing data transfer, which allows applications like powering external GPU possible.

”Fast charging” imo more like a subset of Power Delivery emphasising on charging your device super fast. They are related but not exactly the same thing.
 
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Shirasaki said:
USB-PD means ”Power Delivery” over USB. It’s a new specification designed to allow one port (USB-C) to both transfer data and charge, rather than only doing data transfer, which allows applications like powering external GPU possible.

”Fast charging” imo more like a subset of Power Delivery emphasising on charging your device super fast. They are related but not exactly the same thing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the expanded explanation. The geek in me appreciates this.

Cheers!
 
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jdb8167 said:
If it is a Power Delivery (PD) USB-C charger you can just try it. It’ll either work or not but it won’t harm your MBA. I wouldn’t try it if it isn’t USB-C PD.
Click to expand...

my 10W Samsung phone charger works fine for my MBP :D while browsing or movies it even slowly charges
 
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